10 Early Game Progression Tips in RAID

Starting a fresh account in RAID: Shadow Legends can feel overwhelming. There are dozens of areas to unlock, hundreds of Champions, and plenty of ways to spend valuable resources too early.

The good news is that your early progression gets much easier once you set clear priorities.

These are 10 of the biggest early-game progression tips. They cover your first Rank 6 Champions, Demon Lord, Masteries, Skill Tomes, gear, Missions, Events and resource management.

Your first Rank 6 Champion has a huge impact on early progression.

Traditionally, players would take their starter Champion straight to Rank 6. Kael remains a strong option since he can farm Campaign and bring Poisons into Demon Lord and Dragon.

That is no longer an automatic choice.

New player link codes, Promo Codes and free Champion events can give fresh accounts much stronger options. Look at your full roster before committing those first five Rank 5 Chickens.

You want your first Rank 6 to cover as many jobs as possible.

Ideally, they should farm Campaign and contribute in several other areas. Demon Lord, Dragon, Spider, Fire Knight, Arena and Doom Tower are all valuable.

A Champion such as Pelops is a good example. He brings strong damage alongside Shield, HP Burn, Decrease ATK and Taunt.

Campaign farming speed matters, but account-wide value matters more during your first few weeks.

Do not pick your next Rank 6 Champions in isolation.

Your first five Champions should form the foundation of a team that can tackle most early PvE content.

It’s important to try and cover several key roles:

• Damage
• Healing or protection
• Revive
• Speed and Turn Meter control
• Crowd control
• Decrease ATK
• Decrease DEF

You do not need a different Champion for every role. The best early-game Champions often cover several at once.

A strong damage dealer paired with a support Champion gives you a solid starting point. Adding Speed, Turn Meter boosts and crowd control can then make dungeon waves much safer.

Kryen is a great example of this. He brings Increase SPD, Turn Meter manipulation and Freeze.

Think about the complete five-Champion team before investing heavily into each individual Champion.

One of the easiest early-game mistakes is feeding Epic Champions to create Rank 5 Chickens.

Do not do it.

Even an Epic Champion who looks weak today can become useful later.

Faction Wars alone gives you a reason to build a deep roster across every Faction. Doom Tower, Cursed City and specialist bosses create more uses for Champions with unusual skills.

Something as simple as Heal Reduction, Poison Sensitivity or Provoke can turn an ignored Champion into an important part of a future team.

It’s advisable to keep at least one copy of Rare Champions during the earliest stages too.

You can start clearing out weaker Rares once your roster grows and Champion storage becomes harder to manage.

Epics are different. Keep them.

Your Challenges and Missions contain plenty of useful early-game rewards.

They can burn huge amounts of Energy if you complete them at the wrong time.

Check your current Challenges and Arbiter Missions before starting a major farming session.

Early Artifact Challenges often send you back into Campaign. Complete these while you still need to level Champions and food there.

The same rule applies to Artifact upgrades.

Do not spend Silver taking poor gear to Level 12 or 16 just to finish a Challenge. Wait until you have an Artifact that deserves the investment.

One farming session can then progress your Champions, Challenges and Missions at the same time.

That saves a lot of Energy across the first few weeks.

Demon Lord should become one of your biggest progression targets.

Higher Demon Lord difficulties give you repeated access to some of RAID’s most valuable resources.

Rewards can include:

• Ancient Shards
• Void Shards
• Sacred Shards
• Epic Skill Tomes
• Legendary Skill Tomes
• Gems
• Silver
• Artifacts

This is why it’s smart to build your first five Rank 6 Champions around Demon Lord where possible.

Champions such as Kael bring Poison. Venomage brings several strong Clan Boss debuffs. Fahrakin the Fat adds Ally Attack and more damage.

Your first goal does not need to be Ultra-Nightmare.

Keep pushing through the difficulties and improve your daily chest rewards. Reaching Nightmare is a major milestone for any developing account.

Skill Tomes are one of the easiest resources to waste.

Never assume that every Champion needs to be fully booked.

Look at what each upgrade gives you.

Does it increase damage?

Does it improve the chance of placing a debuff?

Does it reduce an important cooldown?

More importantly, does that Champion need the upgrade to perform their main job?

Madame Serris is a good example. Her main Arena job is often using her A3 to strip enemy buffs and place Decrease ATK and Decrease DEF.

You may only need her to use that skill once.

Doompriest gets much of her value from her Passive. Vogoth can perform key jobs through his Passive effects too.

Then you have Champions whose cooldown reductions completely change their performance.

Those are the skills you should prioritise.

Treat every Epic and Legendary Skill Tome as a limited resource.

Gems create another major decision for new accounts.

Do you unlock the Gem Mine, buy Energy, purchase Shards or unlock Masteries?

There is a lot of value in getting a complete Mastery setup on your first major carry.

That Champion will probably appear everywhere.

Campaign, Demon Lord, Dungeons, Arena and Missions can all benefit from the extra stats and effects.

Buying your first complete Mastery tree with Gems removes the need to grind Minotaur with an undeveloped account.

After that, start farming Minotaur for future Champions once your team can clear the higher stages reliably.

Masteries such as Warmaster and Giant Slayer become very valuable for Demon Lord progression.

Do not leave your core Rank 6 Champions sitting without Masteries for weeks.

Resource management is a huge part of RAID.

You should always check your active and upcoming Events before spending large amounts of Energy.

Imagine an Ice Golem Tournament has started, but an Artifact-related Event begins the following day.

Waiting gives you a chance to score points in both from the same dungeon runs.

Champion Training creates another opportunity.

If one strong Champion can farm a Dungeon alongside food Champions, those runs can produce dungeon gear and Champion experience at the same time.

The runs will take longer, but the Energy value is much better.

This matters even more during Fusion Events.

Before spending Energy, ask yourself what else that Energy can progress.

If you ever feel lost on a fresh account, open your Arbiter Missions.

They give new players a clear path through many of RAID’s core systems.

Keep progressing through the Missions alongside Campaign and your Demon Lord team.

It’s always advised to get your first core team to Rank 6, build their Masteries and Ascend them.

That gives you a proper group of Champions for harder Dungeon stages.

Do not spend weeks farming low Dungeon stages with several Rank 5 Champions.

Build the team first.

Then use that stronger team to farm better stages and better gear.

Dragon is one of the most valuable early Dungeons. Speed gear remains extremely useful across RAID.

That does not mean you should spend every spare point of Energy farming low-level Dragon.

Fresh accounts have plenty of other gear sources.

These include:

• Campaign rewards
• Nightmare Campaign star rewards
• Perception gear from the Forge
• Tournament rewards
• Mission rewards
• Clan Boss rewards

Tournament gear can be especially strong for a new account. A few six-star pieces can transform your builds.

Do not become obsessed with completing Artifact sets either.

Stats matter more.

A strong HP% chestplate with Speed, Accuracy and useful defensive stats can be better than a poor Artifact that completes a four-piece set.

Build Champions around the stats their skills require.

Once your core team can reliably farm Stage 20 Dungeons, investing more Energy into dedicated gear farming starts making far more sense.